Wine Street Museum

[22A]

I remember in the late 60's there was talk and then plans for a transport museum in Wine Street.
The land was available and some exhibits sourced including four locos.
The locos were to be GWR 2818, the Fox Walker 0-6-0st currently at Bitton, but at Radstock at the time, a Peckett, and an Avonside. One of the last two would be sectioned "to show how a loco works".
In the end the funding disappeared and the project was cancelled.
Anyone know what else was going to be exhibited, or was it to be just the four locos?

[76026]

I hope someone will be able to answer this question, but sadly I can't.

I don't recall having ever been aware of this museum proposal- in the late 60's I was new tio railways and not that well informed. A few years later, e.g.in the early 70s, I might have been a bit more sussed.

I have a thought or two about what could / should have been in it, had museum ever come to fruition, e.g.

- a Bristol-manufactured diesel loco - i.e. a Peckett diesel

-some or all of the Peckett Archive, now in the NRM (see https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/sites/ ... 0Lists.pdf)

- a GWR or BR(W) mechanical horse that worked in Bristol

- historical material relating to the TM covered goods depot (drawings, photos, equipment, documents, signage, working timetables)

- some memoirs- written or audio- of Bristol railways workers (including the women who worked on the railways in bristol WW2)

- anything related to the Ashton Swing bridge- although it wasn't unique, there probably weren't many like it

- station and signal box name boards

-a small signal box, complete with frame & levers ( Am I right in thinking that Nailsea & Backwell had a very old frame righ up to the end?)

-a panel rom one of the panel boxes

I fear that I may have got carried away...

[22A]

As it was to be a Transport and not just Railway themed, in the road transport section, Fred Wedlock's "Bristol Busses" could be played over the PA system.

[Devonian]

Four buses were set aside by Bristol Omnibus Co. for inclusion in the museum. Sadly three were subsequently scrapped. One escaped scrapping by a hairs breadth and is fortunately still with us.

[Robin Summerhill]

Four buses were set aside by Bristol Omnibus Co. for inclusion in the museum. Sadly three were subsequently scrapped. One escaped scrapping by a hairs breadth and is fortunately still with us.

But is it a proper bus? By which I mean with a half cab and an open rear platform?

[Devonian]

Well two of 'em were, including the first pre-production Lodekka! The other two were Bristol LS saloons which fail the half-cab open platform test. Mind you, it must be said that the surviving vehicle is the prototype LS. In the strange world we live in, it is probably true that its registration number (NHU 2) is probably worth a good deal more than the vehicle itself!

[76026]

So, two Bristol LS, one pre-production Lodekka what was the fourth bus proposed for the Wine Street museum?

[76026]

Aside from the pre-production Lodekka and the two Bristol LS, what was the fourth bus intended for the museum (and why two LS?)

[Devonian]

8008 (NAE 40) was a Bristol KS (7ft 6in wide chassis fitted with an 8ft wide body). I have never been clear why it was selected for preservation. Maybe it was the first 8 footer in the fleet as, in numerical terms, it was registered before the first KSW (8000, NAE 60).

[Devonian]

Oh, and to answer your question about the LS's, 2800 was the prototype which survives and 2828 was the first production LS which went on line to London Transport (Green Line) when new and was a bit of a celebrity.